857. The meaning of the waters were going and disappearing as the fact that falsity began to be dispersed can be seen from the words themselves. It can also be seen from the remarks just above explaining verse 3, which says that the waters receded, going and coming back, where the present verse says that the waters were going and disappearing. Both phrases symbolize vacillation between truth and falsity, but the meaning here is that such vacillation lessened.
To waver after a period of trial, as I said [§849], is not to know what is true; but as the wavering gradually ends, the light of truth appears. The reason for the darkness is that as long as we are at this stage, our inner self — that is, the Lord working through our inner self — cannot act on the outer self. The inner self holds the remnant described earlier [§§561, 661:2], which is a desire for goodness and for the truth it leads to. The outer self contains cravings and the falsity they lead to. Until these outer attributes are overcome and eliminated, no channel lies open for goodness and truth coming from the inner self, that is, from the Lord through the inner self.
[2] An additional purpose of our trials, then, is to subdue our external qualities and make them obedient to inner qualities. Anyone can see this by considering that as soon as our interests are attacked and crushed, the way they are by misfortune, sickness, and mental illness, our cravings start to shut down. As they shut down, we start talking devoutly. But the minute we return to our previous condition, the outer self takes over and we barely think about religious subjects. Something similar happens in the last hour of death, when our bodily drives begin to die away.
From this everyone can see what the inner self and outer self are, what the remnant is, and how the cravings and sensual pleasures of the outer self block the Lord from operating through the inner being. By the same token it is easy to see what else is accomplished by our struggles or inward pangs, called the gnawings of conscience: subordination of the outer self to the inner. Obedience in the outer self is simply a state in which cravings and consequent falsities do not obstruct, resist, or smother the desire for goodness and truth. An end to perverse longings and misguided thinking is what the going and disappearing of the waters depicts here.
